Shark Fin Soup: An Eco-Catastrophe?

by Hank Pellissier, special to SF Gate

Published
4:00 am PST, Monday, January 20, 2003

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Shark Fin Soup: An Eco-Catastrophe?

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Elizabeth Murdock, 30, is the shark-conservation program manager for WildAid, an international nonprofit with headquarters in North Beach. One of her primary goals is to combat the cruel "finning" of sharks for shark-fin soup, an expensive East Asian delicacy. I interviewed Murdock as we strolled through Chinatown, inspecting the lucrative fins.

Shark-fin soup -- who eats it?

Shark-fin soup was just a regional delicacy in Canton, south China, until the late 1980s. The Beijing government had derided shark-fin soup as a symbol of elitism, but it ended this stance in 1987. Increased East Asian affluence quickly made shark-fin soup popular at wedding banquets, birthdays, feasts and business dinners, as a way of honoring guests. The demand has escalated astronomically in the last 15 years, and now it's a standard dish.

Hong Kong has roughly 50 percent of the global trade in shark fins. I've seen entire streets there lined with shark-fin shops; huge burlap bags brimming with shark fins are stacked into warehouses. Its safe to assume that most of the shark fins in Chinatown are from Hong Kong.

How expensive is shark's fin?

Let's find out.

(We enter Tung Tai Ginseng Company on Grant Street. A huge glass jar of dried yellow shark fins has a $328 price. We ask a man behind a desk what $328 refers to; he frowns and shakes his head. Suddenly, a woman appears.)

(Woman) "Do you need some help?"

(Murdock) How much do those shark fins cost?

(Woman) $328 per pound.

(Murdock) How many shark fins do you get per pound?

(Woman) About eight pieces.

(Murdock) How many fins do you need to make soup for 10 people?

(Woman) We don't give out that information.

(Murdock, to me as we exit the store): That price is $40 per fin. That makes sense. I've heard bowls of shark-fin soup cost from $10 to $65 in Bay Area restaurants.

Wow! Is it delicious? How's it prepared? Is it healthy?

It's cooked for a very long time until the shark fin separates into needles of cartilage that look like clear noodles. The fin itself has no taste, but it's served with a broth of chicken, ham and shiitake that it absorbs. The final texture is supposed to be interesting.

Shark-fin soup is traditionally regarded in Chinese medicine as a tonic. [It's good at strengthening the waist, supplementing vital energy, nourishing blood, invigorating kidney and lung and improving digestion, according to the Compendium of Materia Medica] Modern nutritionists find it rich in protein, and the large amount of gelatin contained can help the growth of cartilage.

But scientifically speaking, shark fin has little nutritional value--and, in fact, it may even be harmful to health over the long term, as shark fins have been found to contain high levels of mercury.

Those shark fins we saw -- who buys them?

Many of the local Bay Area Chinese restaurants that offer banquet dining have shark-fin soup on the menu. Lots of the fins here are also cooked up in people's homes.

Which sharks are killed for their fins? Are they endangered?

There are 400 species of shark, and many are used for their fins. Blue, hammerhead and silky sharks are the most highly traded in Hong Kong. Mako and thresher are also popular, and great white is also used. All these species are found off the California coast.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says over 100 million sharks, skates and rays are killed every year. We figure that's just half the total, because another half is unreported. This total threatens sharks because they reproduce slowly, more like mammals than fish. Some sharks only have 1-2 pups every other year, and they may take nine or more years to mature.

Shark populations are quickly declining -- the dusky-shark population in the U.S. Atlantic has declined 90 percent.

Does WildAid want shark fishing to become illegal?

No. Sharks are an important source of protein in certain parts of the world, like India and West Africa. It's primarily the huge value for fins that endangers sharks--its like a global gold rush. What WildAid wants is an international ban on finning.

What exactly is finning?

"Finning" refers to the practice of cutting off only the shark fins and discarding the body. Sometimes sharks are dead when they're pulled into the boats, but often, they're still alive as their four fins are cut off with a knife. When they're thrown back into the ocean the sharks either bleed to death, or they drown, because sharks can't swim without fins, and they need to go forward to get oxygen. Divers have discovered hundreds of dead finned sharks at the bottom of the ocean in huge shark graveyards.

Fifty percent of sharks are bycatch -- they're accidentally caught by boats that are looking for tuna, swordfish or other fish. Many of the boats don't want to keep the entire shark, so they just fin them. This greatly increases the amount of sharks killed, because a fishing boat can hold an enormous amount of fins.

Are California fishermen finning sharks?

Last August, a U.S. ship was apprehended by the Coast Guard and brought into port in San Diego. It was transporting no shark bodies, but 32 tons of shark fins, which represents between 14,000 and 29,000 sharks. Finning has been illegal in U.S. waters since 2000, but regulating this can be difficult.

What is WildAid's strategy to end shark finning?

We want to reduce the demand for shark-fin soup by educating people. Most of our work is in East Asia, because that's where most of the consumption is.

We have a video of sharks getting finned that was made by undercover investigators that we snuck on board fishing boats with hidden video cameras. We've shown this video as a hard-hitting ad on TV channels in Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore.

We also use Asian celebrities. Ang Lee, the director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," did a public service announcement for us, asking people to not eat shark-fin soup. So did Tony Leung, the Hong Kong movie star, Stefani Sun, the Singapore pop star, and President Chen of Taiwan.

What kind of activities take place in San Francisco to help the sharks?

We had an extremely popular educational exhibit last September in Golden Gate Park's California Academy of Sciences -- it was called "Sharks: Predator or Prey?"

We're taking that same exhibit in 2004 to New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and Vancouver. It's going to be in Asia throughout 2003 in Taipei, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and hopefully on the mainland, in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities. Our most ambitious goal is to expand our campaign into China -- the biggest market for shark-fin soup.

Do some Asians resent American interference? I mean, you're telling them what they shouldn't eat --

Yes, there is some resistance to our campaigning, but mostly from shark-fin dealers. At our last Hong Kong press conference, the shark-fin dealers showed up with signs that accused us of attacking their cultural cuisine. And in Thailand, we're currently being sued by shark-fin restaurants who say they lost 50 percent of their business after we published a study that indicated that shark fins had dangerously high mercury levels.

We do have a tremendous amount of Asian support. Much of the public there wants shark finning and overfishing stopped; a lot of people are now saying no to shark-fin soup.

How does your tiny seven-person office make a dent in the global shark-fin trade?

WildAid relies heavily on funding from foundations and individuals. We also have partners in Asia -- some are Buddhist activists and organizations -- and we work closely with several Asian governments to improve shark management.

Did you study sharks in college? Were sharks always your favorite animal?

No, I studied humanities, and horses were my favorite. I grew up with Arabians and Thoroughbreds, my senior thesis at Yale was on "Horsemanship in Renaissance Art and Literature," I was on equestrian teams and I considered becoming a large-animal vet.

After college I worked for the National Wildlife Federation, conserving arroyo toads. But large carnivores are definitely sexier, so eventually I moved into campaigning to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot Mountains, Florida panthers into the Everglades and jaguars into Arizona. I like the challenge of convincing people to save big, scary animals.

Do sharks attack many people, or is that just sensationalized?

You have a better chance of getting hit by lightning or of dying of bee stings than of being eaten by a shark. Sharks are victims of misperception and media hype. The year 2001 was dubbed the "Summer of the Shark," but only five people died worldwide.

What's your favorite hobby?

International backpacking. I've trekked in the Tatras Mountains of Slovakia and the Patagonian Andes of Chile, and my next trip will be to Nepal or the Dolomites of Italy.

Hank Pellissier — a.k.a. Hank Hyena — has been a columnist for Salon.com ("Naked World"), SFGate ("Odd Barkings"), the S.F. Metropolitan ("Frisco Utopia") and the New Mission News ("Civic Stench"). He's also executive director of the Hyena Comedy Institute and co-director of a preschool called The Children's Lab.